Economics, environment, mobility, safety

Speed camera data free for all. A good idea? Maybe…

So local authorities and police forces are going to have to publish more data about the speed cameras they operate – assuming they haven’t already turned them all off because of budget cuts.

According to reports the information could include accident rates at camera sites, vehicle speed and the numbers of motorists prosecuted or offered training after offences recorded by the cameras.

In principle this move is to be welcomed but as has been said before, a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. It is vital that the full picture as regards speed cameras is presented, not just that data which supports a particular party policy or approach to cameras and road safety. Let’s be clear for instance, that a big majority of the public support the use of cameras and, overall, cameras are not big revenue raisers for the Exchequer

The RAC Foundation has always believed transport policy should be based on facts and not headlines. That is one of the reasons the Foundation commissioned a major piece of work earlier this year to look at the effectiveness of speed cameras. Its conclusion was that if all the nation’s 6000 fixed and mobile speed cameras were decommissioned then some 800 more people would be killed or seriously injured each year.

That said, it is reasonable to suggest that not all cameras are particularly well sited or doing a good job. Like any road safety intervention their performance needs to be individually reviewed from time to time. Equally, one or two ‘bad apples’ does not mean the whole camera system is rotten and should therefore be abolished. For too long the speed camera debate has been polarised with advocates on both sides forgetting perhaps that while entrenched, blinkered positions are being argued, lives are being lost and ruined on the roads. Let’s hope this latest announcement brings clarity to a topic too often immersed in the fog of hyperbole.